The present invention relates to a high-voltage connector suited for use with electronic apparatuses driven with higher voltages, and more particularly to a connector used in the inverter boards (viz., circuit boards) serving as power supply circuits for the so-called back-light devices that operate as the light beam source for liquid crystal displays.
The printed inverter boards have been made smaller and smaller, so that connectors electrically connecting them to the back-light devices have to be smaller but more resistant to high voltages. The present inventors have therefore filed patent applications for their previous inventions as disclosed in the Japanese Laying-Open Gazettes No. 10-172649 and No. 2000-252005. In these preceding inventions, linear and spatial distances between the contacts in each connector were increased so that it could withstand high voltages.
Basically, the present invention was made to further improve those high-voltage type connectors proposed in said Gazettes so as to decrease their horizontal width. This is because such known connectors are of the xe2x80x9cside typexe2x80x9d in which two pin contacts held in the insulated housing are for side by side arrangement on a printed inverter circuit board. It has been difficult to satisfy a demand for reduction of space in the direction of their width, although the linear and spatial distances were increased indeed between the pin contacts.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a high-voltage connector of the xe2x80x98top typexe2x80x99 having two pin contacts that will be arranged up and down on a printed inverter circuit board, while ensuring resistance to high voltages and remarkably diminishing the space occupied by the connector""s width.
In order to achieve the object from a first aspect of the invention, a high-voltage connector is a base connector to be mounted on a printed circuit board, the base connector comprising an insulated housing with a front opening, and two pin contacts held in discrete compartments separated by a partition that is formed as an integral portion of the housing. The two pin contacts consist each of a connecting pin and a lead continuing therefrom, wherein the connecting pins protrude in parallel towards the front opening, with the leads having solderable ends capable of being soldered to the circuit board. The compartments each lying horizontally are arranged in parallel and one above another when the connector is mounted on the circuit board, so that the leads of the pin contacts fixed in the compartments respectively extend downwards different distances along the side walls of the housing such that their solderable ends are included in a common plane but are offset fore and aft relative to the housing.
One of the two pin contacts may be an input pin contact, with the other being an output pin contact. Since the input pin contact is prone to be heated due to a high voltage, it is preferable to dispose it in the upper compartment.
In detail, the two solderable ends of those pin contacts extend along the housing bottom wall take their positions offset fore and aft from each other in the housing. It may be possible to afford a sufficient spatial distance between the solderable ends as xe2x80x9clead patternsxe2x80x9d in the following manner. The lead of the one pin contact accommodated in the upper compartment will be located intermediate between the front and rear faces of the housing, so as to extend down along one of the side walls of the housing and then to be bent forwards to provide the solderable end along the housing bottom. On the other hand, the other pin contact accommodated in the lower compartment is located near the rear face of the housing, so as to extend down along the other side walls of the housing and then to be bent backwards to provide the other solderable end also along the housing bottom. However, such xe2x80x98stereographicxe2x80x99 configurations may be exchanged between the two leads of pin contacts.
From a second aspect, the present invention also provides a socket connector mating with the high-voltage base connector as summarized above. This socket connector comprises two socket contacts and a socket housing for accommodation thereof, wherein the socket contacts fixed on input and output wire ends are capable of fitting on the respective connecting pins of the contacts held in the base connector. The socket housing, that is bifurcated to have a recess engageable with the partition formed in the base connector housing, comprises two cylindrical chambers each lying horizontally and disposed in parallel and one above another to respectively hold the socket contacts. Further, an ear protrudes backwards from the rear end of one side wall of the socket housing.
Thus, the two wire ends connected to the socket connector take their positions up and down and in parallel with each other, and the socket connector is shaped narrow corresponding to the high-voltage base connector. In use, the ear protruding from the socket housing may serve as a pick-up knob that will assist an operator to easily insert the socket connector into or remove it from the base connector at a right angle relative thereto. The ear will also protect the wire ends from being injured due to their bending or flexing during a wiring operation. Preferably, the lower face of the ear may be spaced a distance from the housing bottom, lest the ear should collide with the printed circuit board having the base connector fixed thereon when the socket connector is handled to engage therewith or disengage therefrom. Any finger recess formed in the outer side face of such an ear will further assist the operator to correctly grip the socket housing. Further, a lug facing the ear may be formed to protrude sideways from the other side wall of housing so as to cooperate with the ear to render more convenient the picking motion.